While Seattle Seahawk Russell Wilson continues to wipe away tears of joy (and Cheeseheads, tears of despair), we bring you news of patent troll legislation out of the Evergreen State. What’s a patent troll? A company that acquires “exceptionally broad patents” and then accuses another
On March 31, the Supreme Court of the United States began hearing oral arguments for the notable patent case of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank and the application of patent protection on software, specifically computer-implemented inventions, and whether it is appropriate under Section 101 of
The countdown to January 1st has begun and so have the year-end reviews. We want to kick off the new year with you by sharing our 13 most popular blog posts from 2013 covering everything from the FRCP to trademark infringement to e-discovery to data
In response to a 2006 suicide bombing in Tel-Aviv, Israel, resulting in several deaths and injuries, the Wultz family of Florida filed a civil suit against the Bank of China (BOC), alleging acts of international terrorism under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) by providing material support
A recent California federal district court case, Entrepreneur Media, Inc. v. Smith, does not seem very noteworthy at first glance, and for the most part it isn’t. Entrepreneur Media (EMI) won a judgment against the defendant in a straightforward case of trademark infringement. In attempting
In a 2012 Intellectual Property Magazine article, DeAnna Allen, partner at Cooley, brought up an important question about content providers and patents: “What degree of financial responsibility should a content provider reasonably expect to bear for patent infringement when it has little or no hand
Patent trolls have another trick up their sleeves that could hurt small startups and entrepreneurs, and it involves crowdfunding. For those of you who aren’t sure what this means, the names Kickstarter and Indiegogo may ring a bell. Basically, crowdfunding is a feel-good way to
GE and the 4 year-old product development company Quirky have come to an agreement that will allow the public to use many GE patents to spur invention and innovation. The initial deal will make 200 patents available to the public, but will eventually include thousands.
Google just announced the “Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge” or OPN as a way to decrease patent threats surrounding open-source software. Open-source software is freely available to public and private entities, with its complete source code, to change, use, or distribute to anyone for any reason.
The U.S. may have finally found a way to stop, or at least limit, patent trolls from continuing to wreak havoc on the legal system. A proposed “loser pays” update to the Shield Act in America Act would make patent trolls financially liable for all
NPR reported yesterday on the increasingly accessible and easy-to-use 3D Printing technology that is beginning to revolutionize objects the same way that mp3s revolutionized music. With the release if Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect—a motion sensing controller of sorts that works by detecting your hand and body